Hi Lesley, If you make it to California for Picnic Day at UC Davis, ensure that you swing by the ScienCenter in Los Angeles. They've got the best ecology exhibits I've ever seen.
Biomes are separated into different rooms--Desert has live animals, including lizards, bats, and honeypot ants; part of the exhibit gets you wet with a flash flood. Island has activities with ping-pong balls that demonstrate how organisms (the ping-pong balls) travel to islands (via catapult, wave action, etc); another part of the island exhibit shows how different beak morphologies (metal claws of different shapes and sizes) are suited for different types of food (ping-pong balls of different sizes). The "rot room" contains glass cases with decaying meat + maggots and old animal skeletons + dermestid beetles; there also were frame-by-frame recordings of decomposition, the speed and direction of which visitors could play with. It's inspiring, for sure. And the visiting kids looked like they were having a lot of fun. Cheers, Elizabeth Wason On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 10:39 AM, John Cozza <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Lesley, > > May I suggest "Picnic Day" at UC Davis as an inspiration. Check out > http://picnicday.ucdavis.edu/ for more info and the program. The exhibits > and activities are centered on biology, ecology, agriculture, and > conservation and feature real crowd pleasers like doxie races and maggot > art (believe it or not!) and all you could ever want to learn about soils, > native wildflowers, biotechnology, etc. The wonderful conservatory there > has tours of their amazing plant collection, so if you've got a greenhouse > on your campus you already have an exhibit ready to go! > > John Cozza > Florida International University > > > Hello folks, > > I'm reaching out to the Ecology/Evolution community to ask for a little > > inspiration. Every year, universities around Canada host a science > > festival called "Science Rendezvous". At Ryerson, this has historically > > involved a primarily chemistry and/or physics -focused event, with big > > explosions and cool mist (dry ice) for instance. This appeals to the > > large crowds (literally thousands of people, primarily families) that > > pass through our downtown venue. This year I'd like to introduce an > > ecological or evolutionary aspect to the festival. Does anyone have a > > suggestion of an outreach display or activity that has worked well at > > this type of experience? > > Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! > > BEST wishes, > > Lesley > > > -- (281) 224-0099 lizwason.wordpress.com
